Meanwhile, Lia and two of her servants, along with Elios' familiars and Alma waited in the conference room with dark faces. Originally, only Elios, Jeanne and Lia were supposed to wait here for Brad to bring back good news, but when Elios rushed to Brad's side everyone except the children gathered in this room. At first, Elios was the one who should have held this role in the first place, but the members here were very worried because through their bond, Elios' familiars had realised that Brad was no more.
Of course they all had faith in Elios, but they also knew Brad's strength so they couldn't help but be jittery. They endured their anxiety in silence, until Jeanne, Ein and Bony shook. Noticing the strange look in their eyes, Lia asked in a solemn tone, "What is it?"
After a few seconds the three returned to normal, but their expressions became even more serious. This change brought more discomfort to Lia as Jeanne responded.
"Things have likely progressed in the least favourable direction."
"What do you mean?" Lia asked.
The three familiars traded looks, their true identities were still secret from Lia, but they chose to say what they could.
"Master took back the power that he lent us. Which means that he's been forced to use his trump card."
Lia clicked her tongue. Naturally she knew that the True Ancestors were no easy foe, but despite her impressive information network, she didn't know to what extent their danger lied. Despite their lack of information, she and Elios decided to execute this plan as if they could assassinate a True Ancestor, they could throw the enemy forces into chaos and delay the outbreak of war. However, now she regretted choosing this option. More than a flawless plan, she should have thought more about his safety.
'You won't die on me, right?'
Watching as she turned pale, Elios' subordinates sympathized with her, but Lia's servants were different. Lia's two guards knew that she was merely using Elios so that she could take revenge on the ones who forced her to leave the capital. Without him, all of her efforts for the past couple years would be wasted, that was why she was so distraught. It had to be.
Although Lia had raised Elios as the leader of the resistance, even if he died the resistance could still be led by Lia, however, Elios' forces would no longer be a part of them. Surely it was this loss in military strength that Lia was worried about.
Or else...
In the end, there was nothing but cons to his death so everyone desperately prayed that he would come back.
***
Of all the times, why does Murphy's law have to activate now?!
I turned around to find a demon with a plain jacket over his bare chest. He wasn't particularly muscular, but the big scar across his forehead and the ones that peeked out from his clothes made his experience in battle clear. His pair of small white horns, representative of ogres, protruded from his blazing red hair. His fearless expression gave him a certain wild charm, but even along with his imposing aura his appearance alone wouldn't inspire this much fear from me.
After a brief sigh I asked, "I know this is a cliché but, how did you get in here?"
In response, the ogre chuckled, "Well, I suppose I should apologize for peeping on your sacred battle, but weren't you the one who trespassed into my city first?"
I already knew it, but he provided further proof.
"Your city, huh? As I thought you're,"
"Baston Liluc Agath, the Fourth Demon King of Wrath," he proudly announced.
I knew instinctively that he wasn't bluffing. Considering that this was the worst case scenario I had previously tried to predict my chances against him, but even with the limited information I had the result was under 0.01%, and every one of those 'victories' was due to some form of sneak attack so I never won in a fair fight. Even now, my subconscious was screaming at me not to fight him. I really didn't want to believe that this was happening, but this wasn't the time to moan in despair.
"Well I suppose I should feel honoured then, Your Majesty, but that doesn't answer my question."
"Kekeke, I guess not. It's simple really, as the Demon King my Authority covers all of Asura so I can see everything and move anywhere within this city."
'Tch, so it was real, the Demon King's Authority.'
It was said to be a godlike power that gave the Demon King the ability to rule Lambda. Lia and I had talked about it, but even she didn't know much about it, and so we got caught in this trap without realizing it.
Learning of it made me even more certain that I shouldn't fight him so I swiftly made a plan to escape.
"I see. So are you going to avenge your subordinate?"
As I tried to chew through the spatial lock placed here with abyss magic, I asked this question, to which he gave me a confused look.
"Avenge, why would I do something as meaningless as that? To fight is to be prepared for death, I'm sure Alcor knew that."
Hearing that he wasn't here for revenge, I felt a bit of relief, but it was too soon.
"Is that so? In that case, I'll hurry up and leave and prepare a formal apology for trespassing into your city at a later date. How about-"
"Hmm? And why would I let you go?"
As if slapped by reality...again, I muttered, "...Huh?"
The Demon King then took a step and at the same time the scenery changed. From an ever expanding room, we went to a desolate grassland that went on to the horizon. Unlike the secret space where I found Aishie, the sky was the familiar purple that I remembered, but this seemed to be another created space.
"I've waited for those old goats to prepare a battlefield for me for so long that I was beginning to starve, so I could I let such a perfect prey escape my grasp?"
'This bastard!'
Hearing from his own mouth that the war was just so that he could fight irritated me, even though I knew he wasn't totally at fault. However, I quickly reined in my emotions and changed gears while examining my surroundings.
"What is this place?"
He kindly explained, "This is my Duel Field, made with my Demon King's Authority. But you don't have to worry, since you're a Transcendent I can't use my Authority to best you in combat so we can have our fight in earnest."
I could tell that the excitement on his face wasn't a lie. Perhaps even more than Brad and Alcor, this guy was also a battle junkie, one who could even go insane if he wasn't satisfied. However, while he was ecstatic, I was upset. If it was before then I could have escaped by breaking through space, but in this 'Duel Field' I could sense a very powerful spatial lock that I wouldn't be able to remove easily. I still didn't want to fight him, but now I had no choice but to change tactics.
I used Laplace and spent my infinite time coming up with the best plan using every ability I had, but even then my plan relied heavily on luck, something I was most displeased about. Even so, it was the best I could come up with so it would have to do.
"So you won't let me go without a fight?"
"Nope."
"Hah...fine."
Unlike with Alcor, holding back would be testament to suicide so I immediately went into Dragon Form. As scales covered my body and a pair of wings sprouted, the Demon King's eyes lit up and his smile grew even more ferocious.
"So you still had a card like that. Perfect."